Welcome to my book blog created 2012 of books I read and review. I exhausted space on my other blog, Pat's Posts. Better to separate my readings from my writings. Eventually I will display my entire library here. I am in the process of moving some reviews from the other blog here as well. The design of this blog has been a work in progress, slowly, bear with me...

MY OTHER BLOG

If you got here because I commented and you were directed to this blog, it is because Blogger will not show both blogs. So you can get to my Pat's Posts, by clicking this link..my miscellany, the first blog while this is just about books.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Connor

A benefit of a book club, is to learn about books that I would not otherwise hear of, books that are not all the current rage, books I have missed over the years. That introduces "The House at Sugar Beach" published in 2008, an autobiography of Helene Cooper, a journalist with whom I was not familiar. But having read this, I look for her columns now. One of the women in our club has teen age Liberian grandchildren adopted by her pastor son in law and wife so she found this book in her quest to learn about Liberia.

What little I knew of that country is the history of how some of the freed blacks prior to the Civil War migrated back to Liberia and how President Lincoln among others advocated sending the freed slaves to Liberia. Helene covers this history and traces her ancestry back to the initial migration in 1822, certainly far ahead of the time in history I knew. In only 345 pages, Helene writes fully about the history of Liberia, the culture from the 1800's to today and the privileged family life she experienced there, in a 22 room mansion, as the daughter of wealthy Liberians. She vacations in America, Spain and Switzerland and a sister is attending school in America. But in a moment with political uprisings life changes, turns hard and will never be the same.

I so enjoyed learning about Liberian customs, phrases, and the political unrest and turmoils. The phrase, "I hold your foot" conveys deepest admiration and is always said when sincerely pleading for something, even as a child. She traces their ancestry back to Elijah Johnson a free black man in New York in 1787. This book would be an eye opener for those who do not know much about the history of free blacks in this country and are under the impression that all blacks were slaves.

The characters in her family are richly described and their experiences are touching and humorous. The accepted practice of Liberian men having many wives or commonly more than one, or bouncing readily leaving one for another touches her own family although her mother does not approve, they are a mixed household of children from her father's other wives. They also "adopt" Eunice, a girl from a nearby village to be a "sister companion to Helene. The Cooper family treat Eunice nearly as well as their own children, educating her and giving her a private room, which is beyond anything this child could have imagined. However, when the family flees to America in 1980, following another political revolt, and the rape of Mrs. Cooper while her daughters huddle upstairs, they are not able to take Eunice along. While Helene will never forget Eunice, twenty three years pass until she returns to Liberia and they reunite.

Back cover of paperback edition

As a journalist, she writes her story in a compelling way that made me turn the pages quickly. I could offer many examples of excellent writing here, but one in particular touched me, page 187,".. It was the same thing I would do for the rest of my life when something bad happens, I focus on something else. I concentrate on minutiae. It's the only way to keep going when the world has ended." That demonstrates her wisdom. She weaves all her experiences into the person she becomes, a strong woman, without a grudge. Someone I know I would enjoy talking with.

Page..344..." In a few days, I would be packing up and leaving Monrovia. I would bribe my way out of Robertsfield and onto Ghana Airways to Accra, and then onto British Airways to London and then to Washington, where Marlene would meet me and take me back to my house in our nice neighborhood with its quaint front porches and picket fences. I would leave Eunice with the new Liberian cell phone that I had purchased, so she would never be unreachable for me again. But phone or not, I would still be leaving her. Eunice would return to Firestone, to her husband, to her foster children and Sugar Beach would again be a memory. Still, I knew which memory would prevail--the Sugar Beach of my childhood,....."

She does not hide the gruesome brutality, details of the revolts and the jealousy amongst the different native sects, making for some raw reading. Yet a mature reader will recognize this is all fact, truth, not sugar coated. There are a series of discussion questions at the end and an interview with Helene who is a successful White House correspondent for the New York Times and who started after college as a Wall Street Journal reporter becoming a traveling foreign correspondent which takes her all over the world.

I give this book 5 ***** and recommend it for book clubs or anyone who wants to learn.

Open Book

Open Book

Your books

I found this scrap clipping clearing out paperwork, there is no author, I wished I'd written it but I didn't and I don't know who did: "Your books are your autobiography; they map your history, reflect your tastes, hold emotional moments between covers."

My rating system 5 *****

I am using a 5 star rating with 5 being excellent, the best read and 1 marginal....some books may not merit 1 star. Life is too short to waste on uninteresting books...or maybe my reading time is too short, or maybe I'm just too short. But there it is 1 low to 5 high.

I read books

“I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has

Book Drunkard Quote LM Reynolds

When you finish a book

When you finish a book

You are the books you read

You are the books you read

My other blog

This is the link to my other blog, where there are reviews of books I have read prior to 2012 as well as other writings http://patonlinenewtime.blogspot.com/

About Me

This is to record books I have read, sometimes my comments may be useful to others. However I set this blog up for tracking my own reads, and a way to not repurchase something I have already read. That purpose does not always work. I do not belong to any book clubs because I prefer to choose my own books to read and the book clubs I tried did not work out for me. I wanted discussion, about writing, authors, the concepts, etc instead all I heard was, "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" no depth of conversation, so I gave up. I have been a life long reader. I will say in retirement, I do not spend enough time just reading, as I imagined I would. My days are busy and so it is unusual for me to carve out time in the day to read, mostly I read for about half an hour prior to bed. Life is different than I thought it would be. .